Jennifer Aniston's home, on a Los Angeles hilltop, could be intimidating if Jennifer Aniston didn't live in it. An impassive white stucco frontage houses a large wooden door, which opens to reveal Aniston in aviator reading glasses and workout clothes and surrounded by three excitable dogs of different size and flavor. Aniston, blonder than her honeyed usual, heads to the kitchen–cum–TV room and puts on some tea. "How's life?" I ask, hazarding a guess that life for Aniston—who married longtime boyfriend Justin Theroux last summer—is not too shabby. "Married life is so normal and fun and not much different," she says. "We felt married for so long." Theroux is not in town, rather in New York shooting the film adaptation of The Girl on the Train, with Emily Blunt. "As they say in the business, 'He's on fire,' " Aniston says with air quotes, while alighting on the couch with her green–mint tea combo. "I'm so proud of him."

Theroux may be away, but in the house's decor he is very present. Pictures of him and Aniston cover the walls, as do photos of the dogs and of Aniston with friends like BFF Courteney Cox. Tell Aniston that she should think about launching a home line—the house is notable for its gorgeous livability—and she responds, "I want to. How do I do it?" (Well, consider this piece a start.)

Aniston loves to be at home, and the sentiment extends to her work: These days, she will work only on projects that make it worth leaving. "I really have to love something to be leaving my home, my dogs, my husband. The older you get, the more you realize that." She is providing her easy gleam to this month's lady-ensemble comedy, Mother's Day (alongside Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson, and a legion of other Hollywood smilers), but the future will see her in more ambitious, testing fare. Of her career, she observes, "There's a steadiness, for sure, but also this desire to peel away more. You know, like 'Fuck it.' " She laughs. "What's a more graceful term?" Following her feted performance as a chronic-pain sufferer in 2014's Cake, Aniston has just finished shooting The Yellow Birds, an Iraq War drama in which she plays the mother of a troubled young soldier. As with Cake, she is also a producer on the film.

The great triumph of Cake was reinforcing what Aniston had teased at all along: "I can do other things. I feel a sense of freedom that I hadn't necessarily felt before. Also, you have to start taking chances in an industry that's very insecure about taking chances on people." Especially when you've become, as Aniston has, a megabrand. "People forget who actors are. They say, 'You're too known to play that part. You can't disappear.' And we're like, 'Give us a chance. We'll disappear.'"

"I had somebody say to me, 'Women these days in their 40s look pretty good!' I mean, who says that?"

Of course, there's a part of Aniston's life that depends on her being very visible—and that's the brand. The way she looks and lives remains as potent as ever. We're all drinking Smartwater, moisturizing with Aveeno, and shampooing with Living Proof in the hope that some of her tawny shine will rub off. "They make Smartwater in sparkling now!" she says, laughing. "Just sayin'."

Aniston, 47, takes very good care of herself. She works out five days a week, resists sugar (her major indulgence is margaritas and guacamole), and her regular lunch consists of "a salad with protein" or a chicken burger wrapped in lettuce. "I feel better in my 40s. Not only do you feel better in your body physically, but you're mentally better. Because, say, in your 20s, you didn't know shit. For me, in my 30s I was just trying to figure it all out. Then when you hit 40, you're like, 'Oh, okay. I got this.' " Aniston is really feeling 50 too. "There are women who've hit 50 who are stunners, like shocking. We just take better care of ourselves." She sighs, though, when she recounts a recent experience. "I had somebody say to me, 'Women these days in their 40s look pretty good!' " She shakes her head. "And this was a much older person. I mean, who says that?"

Atypical day for Aniston goes something like this: Wake up around 8 A.M., then "I run the dogs through the garden. Feed them while the coffee's brewing. Work out. Read. Meetings." Said workout involves "a 15-minute-quad thing. I do 15 on the elliptical, 15 Spinning, then I do 15 run. And then I do portions of the Body by Simone DVD for floor work. It's so freakin' hard, it's unbelievable." Whatever, it's working—Aniston is tight as a drum. Her other favorite routine: "Puttering. I stay up late. The house is empty; it's nice, it's quiet. I usually go to bed at about midnight, 1 A.M."

Though she stays up late, Aniston is not spending her time lost in a wormhole of social media. "We work so hard to maintain some sort of life and privacy," she says. "Why would we intentionally put ourselves out there?" She describes fan interaction in the time of Instagram: "It's like you're on TV or on a movie screen. They see you, hold their phone right up to your face, and take a picture. I'm like, I'm standing right here with a pulse!" She sighs. "It's sweet, though, just…different."

She also doesn't envy the burning stars of today. "There was a time when I worked and worked and worked. I loved it." Today she's teaching herself how to say no. "I'm trying to be better at that," Aniston says. "I'm a bit of a people pleaser. I've got to stop. Some of the movies I've made, I bow my head in slight shame over." However, she's eager to work with "Julia Roberts. I had a big tease because we did a scene together in Mother's Day, but it was a moment. And Emma Stone I'm dying to work with." You can almost hear the repartee.

That's the thing with Aniston, she is warm and lovely company, but you know that when the tape recorder's off she could let it go, Frozen-style. "Man, I think everyone's so freakin' politically correct lately. It's becoming a real drag," she says."I like making jokes. I'm lucky because Justin is the funniest person I've met, and we make each other laugh. Laughter is one of the great keys to staying youthful." And with that she lets out a very saucy laugh.

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